The Public Face
Presidents like to think their administrations are based on big ideas, effective policies, and personal charm. But in large part the essential ingredient to their success is image--how they convey themselves to the public and how they communicate their goals to the country.
President Bush and his strategists know this, and their use of stagecraft is among the best of the modern era. Throughout the past four years, the president's handlers have surrounded him with the kind of visuals that the camera finds irresistible--scenes of American flags, soldiers, kids, admiring faces, and backdrops of signs and slogans reinforcing a theme of the day--economic prosperity, for instance, or victory in the war on terrorism.
Beyond all that, Bush's presidency has benefited from two iconic images. One was the picture of him standing with a bullhorn amid the rubble of the World Trade Center after 9/11, the other of Bush in a flight suit swaggering across the deck of an aircraft carrier after a dramatic landing in a Navy jet. Clearly, one of the president's goals, one that helped him win a second term, is to project an image of strength and resolve.
Image wasn't always the coin of the realm. For much of U.S. history, presidents were faraway, gauzy figures who rarely gave speeches or mingled with the people and who made little impact on everyday citizens. Abraham Lincoln changed all that. He had his portrait taken by Civil War photographer Mathew Brady just before the 1860 campaign, and the widely published picture gave the homely candidate an aura of dignity and statesmanship that appealed to Americans throughout the North.
Image control. Franklin Roosevelt also found a way to bond deeply with Americans through photography. He allowed the media to take many photos of him during his 12 years in office, projecting the idea of a gregarious, optimistic leader. What the photos didn't show were the heavy steel braces that allowed FDR to stand up despite paralysis caused by polio.
In recent years, presidents have been constantly in the public eye, instantly recognizable and, to most Americans, endlessly fascinating. Remember the photo of a grinning Harry Truman holding up the newspaper with the headline "Dewey Defeats Truman"? That only enhanced his image as the underdog who defied the odds.
The photographic portfolio of John F. Kennedy is filled with irresistible pictures--the young father cavorting with his kids in the Oval Office, the handsome president and his glamorous wife in front of Air Force One, and, most particularly, the sunlit image of JFK with his head bowed before his big Oval Office desk, the embodiment of the pressures and responsibilities of Camelot.
Other pictures have been less flattering. There was Richard Nixon giving his final wave as he left the White House the day he resigned; Gerald Ford on the tarmac in Austria after falling down the steps of Air Force One; Bill Clinton wagging his finger at reporters as he denied having sexual relations "with that woman, Miss Lewinsky."
But few images were as memorable as those created by Ronald Reagan and his brilliant media managers. Perhaps topping the list was his 1984 speech overlooking the cliffs of Normandy, where he honored the sacrifices of the World War II generation. "I have always believed," said Michael Deaver, Reagan's lead image-maker, "that impressions are more important than specific acts or issues . . . I believe TV is a great boon to us in judging our leaders. It lets us see all the dimensions that, in the past, people could only see in person: the body language, the dilation of the eye, the way they perspire. We see them when they are tired, worried, under great crises. If television focuses on somebody every day, it shows all the dimensions."
With today's 24-hour news cycle, the president fears the onset of "Bush fatigue" if he hogs the limelight too long. Says Republican National Chairman Ed Gillespie, a key White House adviser: "The media themselves are more leery of manipulation of image, but when you give them a beautiful picture, they can't help using it." And former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer has observed: "Sometimes, I think the White House press won't be satisfied until there is a 'president cam' in the Oval Office, so they can watch him 24 hours a day." That won't ever happen, but Fleischer has a point. Americans have an insatiable appetite for pictures of their president, and that won't change anytime soon.
This story appears in the December 13, 2004 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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